Don’t Take the Wrong Decision Shortcuts

The benefit of an almost inexhaustible supply of facts, figures and data can often be a double-edged sword in our increasingly complex, information-overloaded world. While having all the pertinent facts is critical to good decision-making, at the same time conflicting information can leave us stuck and uncertain of how to proceed.

However, behavioral scientists have found that, remarkably, as decision complexity increases, we actually rely on less information to form our decision, not more. In fact, rather than effectively using all the available information, we often rely on a single rule of thumb as a reliable shortcut to making a good decision.

Understanding these “decision shortcuts” can teach us to make our own decisions more effectively and also make us more persuasive ourselves.

Many of these shortcuts fall into patterns that social scientists have seen over and over; let’s look at two in particular. Social proof suggests that one very efficient route to a good decision is to look at how many others are making the same decision: if everyone else is buying it then perhaps I should too. On the other hand, uniqueness suggests that we should be persuaded by the unique and rare features offered in a proposal: if this is the only car with heated seats, I should totally buy it!

Work by social scientist and marketing professor Vladas Griskevicius suggests that often the emotions we experience immediately before we are presented with a message or a proposal can determine which decision shortcuts influence us most.

In the study researchers showed subjects a series of short film clips that were designed to induce either a feeling of fear (“The Shining”) or a feeling of romanticism (“Before Sunrise”). A control group read a short story that evoked neither feelings of fear or romance.

Immediately afterwards participants were shown a series of advertisements that employed either social proof messaging or uniqueness messaging. One advertisement promoted a local museum; the social proof message read, “our museum is visited by over one million people every year,” whereas the uniqueness message read, “stand out from the crowd.” Another ad showed a restaurant review; for the social proof group it read, “many people meet here,” and “this is a most popular restaurant,” while for the uniqueness group it read, “this is a one-of-a-kind restaurant” and “yet to be discovered by others.”

The results clearly showed that those in the “fear” group were more persuaded by the social proof messages, while those in the “romanticism” group were much more persuaded by the uniqueness message.

When we make decisions, therefore, we need to evaluate our own recent emotional experiences to ensure that they are not having a detrimental impact on our decision-making. Were we nervous, and thus predisposed to be vulnerable to claims about how many others are doing something? Or were we excited by a dream, and particularly open to the claim that an offer is just for us? The next time you make a decision, stop and think about your mindset before you were presented with the alternatives.

And when it comes to influencing others? This study points to the importance of assessing the emotional state of an audience before deciding how to frame a message. For example, if you must lead a team of people through change, and those people are already uncertain or fearful of the future, this study suggests that touting the unique opportunities of your new strategy is the wrong approach. Instead, you will gain greater traction and buy-in if you provide testimonials that illustrate out how other teams like yours have already embraced similar initiatives.

On the other hand, if your team has a confident, inspired culture, they may well be more persuaded by messages that point to the unique new opportunities at hand-and less convinced by tales of similar efforts elsewhere.

Considering your emotional state before your next decision can keep you from taking a decision shortcut when you’re surrounded by too much information. At the same time, understanding your audience’s emotional state can help you present your message in a way that will resonate best with them.

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